Until the Ohio State football team beats a top-5 foe — that surely will happen again in our lifetimes, won’t it? — the national perception about the program isn’t about to change.

The consensus is that the Buckeyes are overrated, that their four straight Big Ten titles have come when the league has been at perhaps an all-time low and that even their 7-1 record against Michigan under Jim Tressel isn’t a major achievement because part of it was built while their rival was in a coaching transition.

But even the Mark Mays of the world would have to agree OSU has a right to be peeved over its treatment in The Associated Press poll after suddenly getting passed by Cincinnati this week.

The Bearcats, who seem to have caught lightning in a bottle in the hiring of coach Brian Kelly, just may be better than the Buckeyes. But I don’t see the rationale for bumping them from 10th to eighth on the basis of a 37-13 victory over winless and woeful Miami. OSU, meanwhile, remained ninth after a 33-14 triumph at Indiana, which had a 3-1 record and nearly upset Michigan in the Big House.

If OSU isn’t going to be rewarded for doing what it was supposed to do, which is beating a weak team handily, then the same rules should apply to UC. But AP voters seem intent on keeping the Buckeyes in the bottom portion of the top 10 — no matter how many suspect teams they need to toss in ahead of them.

Yeah and O$U arguably didn't deserve to be ranked #6 preseason and we didn't deserve to be unranked coming into the season. UC had a right to be "peeved" over its treatment by the AP in the preseason polls. If we had both started at the same point (or if there were no preseason poll based on historic reputations), we would be ranked a good 5 to 10 spots higher than O$U this week (or more). But it is fun to watch everyone whine like spoiled rich kids who got passed by the hard workers who have the drive to win...

Bottom line, UC deserves (and has earned) every accolade it is getting right now.

This is the problem with too many sports reporters that cover college football. Just because O$U is a more "elite" program doesn't mean that their team THIS YEAR is better then UC's, and it sure the hell doesn't mean that they deserve to be ranked higher. Until the writers can learn to actually take the performance on the field as the only indicator in their rankings the AP poll will continue to be next to useless.

Blah, blah and blah. Do you what velveeta with that whine? What happens this weekend with USF and UC having a bye weekend? Take them out of the poles??? The Bearcats are ranked the highest in program history and in a week they play their toughest game of the year. Go Bearcats.

Just like UK basketball fans, they can't comprehend anything outside of their own team and this belief that as THE Ohio State University, they are better, because, well, they are THE Ohio State University. Its like my arguments with UK fans over the last few years when they were adamant UK belonged in the NCAA tourney, no matter their record. Why do you belong in the tourney? "Well, we're UK, we bring a lot of fans!" You can't really reason with these folks. They aren't objective enough to see simple facts: UC is 5-0 and has road wins at Rutgers and Oregon St. OSU is 4-1 with no quality wins. Why shouldn't a 5-0 BE team be ranked higher than a 4-1 B10 team??? Their only response to this is some bullcrap about tradition and history and being the bigger program. Unfortunately in the words of Matt Foley, motivational speaker, that don't mean "JACK SQUAT!" when it comes to objective rankings.